Sunday 3 August 2014

RoW80 Sunday Check In

This last week has been not so great. For some reason I hit it hard last week and then have had very little success this week. That’s ok though, my goals are all about building habits, not just hitting a word count each day. People say that it takes 3 weeks to really build a habit and I’ve only really focused for one week. So I’m not going to let it get me down, not as much as it did the week before last. Instead I’m going to chalk it up as a learning curve, write off this last week and try again next week. I’m going to keep things simple, make sure I take my time and focus on what I’m doing when I’m doing it rather than always focusing ahead. But enough of what’s to come, let’s look at what I’ve done;

Post 1 blog post other than a RoW80 check in a week –   I did this one. Normally I post two, one on Wednesday and one on Friday. I missed Friday’s post, the last post in my three act structure series because I had a migraine and couldn’t face using the computer. But I did do my WiPpet Wednesday post so I’m happy with that. Progress –  Excellent

30 Minutes on social media a day – Once more this has been slacking a little. I’ve been tweeting and posting on LinkedIn, commenting on blogs and responding to comments here. But I’ve not been spending my 30 minutes each day. I need to improve this, focus my attention and figure out where I’m going to be social each day. Progress – Improving

Spend 1 hour doing a creative activity each day – I’ve not been writing this week, not a single word on Autharium Project. It still needs a name, it still needs a cover, it still needs to be written. So overall this one has not gone well. Progress – Completely terrible

Spend 1 hour doing a different creative activity each day – I have done some outlining on my webcomic idea this week, I’ve been working on the Feral Diaries read through and edits. I’ve also done some sketching which has been really nice to get into. It’s not been every day though but it has been done. Progress – Needs Improvement

Start and try for completion of projects on the order day – I’ve slowly been working away at my projects, completing work and getting more. Hopefully, so that I can build up more work and actually afford the hosting fees (more on that later), I will be focusing more on gaining further work this week. Progress – Improving

Overall it’s been a meh week. But I’m really not sad about it. I’ve tried, I’ve failed, the important thing is that I’m going to be getting right back up tomorrow and trying again. It’s when I stop trying that things are going to be bad. And looking through how I’ve been doing, the goals that I’ve been consistently hitting and the ones that I consistently fail, I can see where I’m strong and where I’m weak and how I can change that.

My goal about posting twice a week seems to be one of the goals that I am consistently reaching, in fact I think that I’ve reached it every week this round so far. I’ve even started to post more than the twice I was aiming for. I’m going to keep it as is for now though as I’m planning to relocate my blog and my updates after a receiving a lot of advice regarding establishing my own website that supports website, particularly from the wonderful and friendly Tammy J Rizzo (another RoW80 member who’s blog you should definitely check out). So that’s the big thing in the pipeline for the month of August, hopefully things won’t go too horribly wrong.

In the meantime, between sorting out website copy, photographs, all kinds of bits and pieces that need to go on the website I’ll be plugging away as usual with work, writing and editing. I’ll more than likely do a series of posts about how it is setting up a website for those people who, just like me, don’t really know what they’re doing. And hopefully, by next week I’ll be partway there and hitting more of my goals.


What do you think? Have I let myself down terribly after a brilliant week last week? Was it something that you expected? Does anyone have any advice for setting up a blog slash website? Anyone know of a good hosting plan that supports Wordpress? Do you have suggestions and advice for time management? What should my rewards be for when I hit each goal each day?

7 comments:

  1. I think your progress has been brilliant THIS week as well.Sometimes the drawing and pursuing other creative works feeds your writing, that the writing part of you just goes to a different place. I agree with you that the important achievement this week has been consistency. Build the habit. The words and works will come. Maybe consider setting a very low word goal (i.e., can you write 250 words in a session?). That can get you started!

    Also, I only use blogger so far for my platform and will be very curious as to what you decide re WordPress! Now I'm off to see Tammy Rizzo's blog. Have a great week! (I'm over at http://bethcamp2.blogspot.com)

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    1. Hi Beth,

      Thanks so much for the encouragement and helping me see the good side of what I've managed to do. I think your advice about trying for a smaller word goal each day is a good one. I'm at a tricky spot in the writing right now and trying to do a massive amount each day seems to be making me lock up. Sticking small might help that.
      Tammy's blog is really informative and I definitely suggest checking it out. I'll be sure to check yours out too.

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  2. I agree with Beth. You have made excellent progress on your goals - sometimes we achieve everything we set out to do and sometimes we take some baby steps and that's it for now. I definitely need to work on the "build a habit" thing. It is hard to keep the motivation going.

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    1. Building a habit is certainly hard but I've found rewards help loads as positive reinforcement. That's why I'm buying myself a DVD in a short while as a treat. I've worked hard and earned it. I'd suggest that you try that too, it doesn't have to be a DVD it could just be something that you enjoy and don't get to do much. Having the chance to do something that's rare and do it because you've given yourself permission to, feeling you've earned it is a great way to help a habit stick and keep motivation going.

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  4. It can take a while to find a writing routine that works for us. Personally, I find that I'm still exploring, changing things up here and there and trying to determine what works best for me.

    As far as websites go, I use wordpress.com and have found it to be affordable and easy to use. The commenting system is also easy to use, so visitors can comment without too much hassle. I've been using it for a few years and haven't had any problems.

    Good luck with your ROW80 goals!

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    1. Thanks so much for the advice. My writing routine seems to be changing each week, hopefully I can finally find something that works really well for me.

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